diversion

Tuesday March 7, 2017

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday March 7, 2017

Trump turns to Congress on wiretap claim, Obama camp denies it, FBI disputes it

President Donald Trump turned to Congress on Sunday for help finding evidence to support his unsubstantiated claim that former president Barack Obama had Trump’s telephones tapped during the election. Obama’s intelligence chief said no such action was ever carried out, and a U.S. official said the FBI has asked the Justice Department to dispute the allegation.

Republican leaders of Congress appeared willing to honour the president’s request, but the move has potential risks for the president, particularly if the House and Senate intelligence committees unearth damaging information about Trump, his aides or his associates.

Trump claimed in a series of tweets without evidence Saturday that his predecessor had tried to undermine him by tapping the telephones at Trump Tower, the New York skyscraper where Trump based his campaign and transition operations, and maintains a home.

Obama’s director of national intelligence, James Clapper, said nothing matching Trump’s claims had taken place.

“Absolutely, I can deny it,” said Clapper, who left government when Trump took office in January. Other representatives for the former president also denied Trump’s allegation. (Source: CBC News) 

 

Wednesday February 8 2017

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday February 8 2017

Why the electoral reform sham will breed cynicism

By killing electoral reform, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has damaged more than just Canada’s prospects for releasing itself from the clutches of moribund first-past-the-post elections. He has cut down the democratic aspirations of hundreds of thousands of young Canadians, tacitly teaching them to expect less from government and dream smaller political dreams.

The most revealing and dangerous aspect of the reform boondoggle was the timing of this announcement, shoehorned into the week of President Donald Trump’s executive orders and travel ban, when so many eyes were transfixed on the American political horror show. Shortly after Gould’s announcement, Trudeau dodged a scrum in the foyer of the House with a drive-by soundbite: “Canadians expect us to do the right thing for the country and focus on the things that matter.”

But the irony of the Prime Minister’s comment is that in the age of Trump, we should be learning that it is democratic integrity and public spirit that matter above just about anything else; that doing the right thing for the country means, at the bare minimum, not blaming citizens themselves when one’s promises can’t be kept.

Conservative commentator David Frum’s startling piece in The Atlantic claims that the primary cause of Donald Trump’s rise has been the “inculcation of cynicism.” He asks how one builds an autocracy and answers: “demoralize potential opponents by nurturing the idea that everybody lies and nothing matters. 

[…] Believers can be disillusioned; people who expect to hear only lies can hardly complain when a lie is exposed.”

We are not yet teetering on the precipice of a maple tea party or Northern Trump. Still, the creeping doubt and disengagement that the electoral reform saga is spawning even now should give the Liberal government reason to pause, get its bearings and rediscover true north on its moral and democratic compass. (Source: MacLean’s) 

 

Thursday June 23, 2016

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator Ð Thursday June 23, 2016 Waukesha, Wis., plan to tap into Lake Michigan called 'wrong decision' Leamington, Ont., Mayor John Paterson is irate after a group of eight U.S. governors voted Tuesday to allow a small Wisconsin town to draw its drinking water from Lake Michigan. A panel representing governors of the eight states adjoining the Great Lakes unanimously approved a proposal from Waukesha, Wis., which is under a court order to find a solution to radium contamination of its groundwater wells. The city says the project will cost $265 million Cdn for engineering studies, pipelines and other infrastructure.Waukesha is only 27 kilometres from the lake but just outside the Great Lakes watershed. That required the city of about 72,000 to get special permission under the compact, which prohibits most diversions of water across the watershed boundary. Paterson immediately took to Twitter to denounce the decision. His peninsula town, the self-proclaimed Tomato Capital of Canada and home to hundreds of greenhouses, is surrounded by Lake Erie. "This should not be allowed," Paterson told CBC News. "I'm really disappointed it happened. That was unexpected. I actually thought the governor of Michigan was going to side with us. He even bailed.Ó The Michigan Senate adopted a resolution last month opposing Waukesha's request. Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder went against that and voted in favour of Waukesha's plan Tuesday. A 2008 pact established a potential exception for communities within counties that straddle the line. Waukesha is the first to request water under that provision. "There are a lot of emotions and politics surrounding this issue, but voting yes Ñ in co-operation with our Great Lakes neighbours Ñ is the best way to conserve one of our greatest natural resources," Snyder said. Snyder also took to social media, to defend his decision.(Source: CBC News) Canada, USA, United States, Great Lakes, water, di

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday June 23, 2016

Waukesha, Wis., plan to tap into Lake Michigan called ‘wrong decision’

Leamington, Ont., Mayor John Paterson is irate after a group of eight U.S. governors voted Tuesday to allow a small Wisconsin town to draw its drinking water from Lake Michigan.

Marvellous Maps

A panel representing governors of the eight states adjoining the Great Lakes unanimously approved a proposal from Waukesha, Wis., which is under a court order to find a solution to radium contamination of its groundwater wells. The city says the project will cost $265 million Cdn for engineering studies, pipelines and other infrastructure.Waukesha is only 27 kilometres from the lake but just outside the Great Lakes watershed. That required the city of about 72,000 to get special permission under the compact, which prohibits most diversions of water across the watershed boundary.

Paterson immediately took to Twitter to denounce the decision. His peninsula town, the self-proclaimed Tomato Capital of Canada and home to hundreds of greenhouses, is surrounded by Lake Erie.

“This should not be allowed,” Paterson told CBC News. “I’m really disappointed it happened. That was unexpected. I actually thought the governor of Michigan was going to side with us. He even bailed.”

Friday, March 6, 2015The Michigan Senate adopted a resolution last month opposing Waukesha’s request. Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder went against that and voted in favour of Waukesha’s plan Tuesday.

A 2008 pact established a potential exception for communities within counties that straddle the line. Waukesha is the first to request water under that provision.

“There are a lot of emotions and politics surrounding this issue, but voting yes — in co-operation with our Great Lakes

neighbours — is the best way to conserve one of our greatest natural resources,” Snyder said.

Snyder also took to social media, to defend his decision.(Source: CBC News)

No profiting for our natural resources

Letter to the Editor Wednesday June 27, 2016, RE: Editorial cartoon, June 22

I would like to thank Graeme MacKay for a very insightful editorial cartoon on the Waukesha request for diversion receiving permission to draw 8.2 million gallons of water per day from Lake Michigan.

Why should we care what’s going on in a town in the U.S. which is seemingly so far away?

Waukesha’s problems today stem back over a century ago when they started treating their natural springs as a “commodity” with private owners capitalizing on what is now a public disaster. Waukesha’s request for Lake Michigan water has been blamed entirely on a depleting aquifer due to increased population pressures. Waukesha’s population is merely 70,000 and interestingly enough is surrounded by water bottling companies (that have remained silent on the issue) that have drilled, along with the town itself, deeper and deeper wells for cleaner sources. Waukesha’s public wells now have high radium deposits and as a result its population has one of the highest cancer rates in the state if not the country.

It is my humble opinion that we have to be more responsible with our water. Like Flint, Michigan, responsible public oversight and policy is the key but even more so we must change our “throwaway culture” and adopt, what Pope Francis pleads for, a “culture of care.” No one should be profiting today from a natural resource while taking away, bit by bit, the future of our grandchildren.

Joseph Baiardo, Mount Hope

 

Friday March 27, 2015

Friday March 27, 2015Editorial cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday March 27, 2015

Bombs Away

WHEN Stephen Harper, Canada’s prime minister, sought parliament’s permission in October to supply troops and aircraft to the coalition fighting Islamic State (IS), he said that the mission would last six months and that Canada would not launch strikes within Syria without the support of that country’s government. On March 24th he altered both conditions, asking parliament to approve a longer mission and bombing of Syrian targets regardless of whether President Bashar Assad agreed. This is necessary, says the Conservative prime minister, because IS is at its strongest in Syria.

Wednesday March 25, 2015The proposal is likely to be popular in Canada, where two soldiers died in terrorist attacks last October. It did not persuade the left-leaning New Democratic Party (NDP) or the centrist Liberals. Their leaders complained that the government is putting Canadians in harm’s way without a clear objective or exit strategy. Thomas Mulcair, the NDP’s leader, accused Mr Harper of appearing to join forces with Mr Assad, “a brutal dictator and war criminal”, even though the bombing would happen without the Syrian leader’s approval. By attacking IS in Syria, Canada will be helping Mr Assad in his fight against that group and others in the country’s civil war. Apart from the United States, no NATO member has bombed targets inside Syria, although Jordan and the United Arab Emirates have done so.

Stephen Harper Crusader King Stephen Harper Crusader KingMr Harper can shrug off such objections, at least for now. His Conservatives have a majority in both houses of parliament. Fighting terrorists enhances the Conservatives’ tough-guy image and distracts from the current weakness of the economy. With a general election scheduled for October, that is helpful. It also fits neatly with the prime minister’s pro-Israel foreign policy. He was one of the first foreign leaders to congratulate Binyamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, after his surprise election victory (while reaffirming Canada’s support for a Palestinian state). (Continued: The Economist)

Posted to iPolitics.com

 

 

 

Thursday, December 9, 2010

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday, December 9, 2010

McGuinty admits security law kept Ontarians in the dark

Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty says his government acted too quickly and kept the public in the dark when it handed police special powers that violated people’s civil liberties during last summer’s G20 summit.

He made the admission a day after the province’s Ombudsman said the now infamous secret measure, made at the direct request of Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair, was “likely illegal” and never should have been enacted.

“This was an extraordinary regulation and it deserved more transparency and more debate,” Mr. McGuinty conceded to reporters on Wednesday.

But his comments did little to end the controversy at the provincial legislature, where opposition members called for the resignation of Community Safety Minister Jim Bradley. It was Mr. Bradley’s predecessor, Rick Bartolucci, who was harshly criticized in the Ombudsman’s report for plotting to keep the measure under wraps last June. But Mr. Bartolucci was moved to the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing two months later as part of a cabinet shuffle.

Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Hudak accused the Premier of exercising “extraordinary poor judgment” in enacting powers normally reserved for times of war and for “conspiring” to keep them secret.

“This was not a simple error,” Mr. Hudak said during Question Period on Wednesday. “It was not a simple mistake. The Ombudsman said this was a premeditated plan to keep the general public in the dark.” (Globe & Mail)